Fry the Big Fish in the Oil they Won’t Clean Up

Kia Franklin

Fry the Big Fish in the Oil they Won’t Clean Up

What happens when a half a trillion dollar company creates an environmental disaster worse than the Exxon Valdez accident, leaving the soil in a Brooklyn neighborhood seeped with between four and twenty feet of cancer-causing, benzene-concentrated oil?

Well, 57 years later, residents of Greenpoint Brooklyn are still awaiting an answer to that question. New Yorkers are all too familiar with the Mobil (now ExxonMobil) spill, which occurred back in the 1950s to late 1940s. Since the spill was discovered back in 1978 (read history) the oil giants responsible for the fiasco have essentially sat on their hands. Basically nothing has happened to mitigate the extensive damage caused by this 17-30 million gallon spill.

According to this newsclip, five people on the same contaminated block have suffered from the same rare form of bone cancer. Coincidence or corporate crime? It could take decades to clean the oil, and even then, at least 50% of the pollution could remain. Watch the video; it is really informative and even includes an interview with local residents, some of whom have suffered from cancer due to exposure to chemicals escaping the oil.

In addition to one lawsuit filed by the environmental group Riverkeeper and one lawsuit filed by local residents, the New York State attorney general’s office filed suit a few days ago against the companies involved in the spill. (See the Press Release and this New York Times article. Previous coverage can be found here.)

And rightly so. Big corporate interests often say people sue because they don’t want to take responsibility; yet these same interest groups hide behind the corporate entity and the legal loopholes they’ve created when the time comes to take their own advice. ExxonMobil is no exception, as the company hasn’t exactly had a clean track record when it comes to paying for the dirt it has done.

So why on earth would we not say the 500-billion-dollar company should be held responsible for damaging the environment and the lives of innocent people? Because plaintiff’s lawyers—lawyers who will pour hours of time and energy into holding the corporate giant responsible for its misdeeds and its sluggish response—will earn money from their work on the lawsuit? Because the company, which issues fat compensation checks to retiring executives but won’t spend a fraction of that money on cleaning up its colossal mess, will lose profits?

Perhaps from a free-market standpoint the “cost” of suing this company would render a lawsuit “inefficient”—I’m sure they could find a way to manipulate the argument and say that this would discourage other oil-barons from pursuing profits regardless of environmental impact, and that this is bad for the economy and lowers our standard of living. But, if we’re only talking dollars, we ain’t talking sense. What are the real costs involved? What are the costs to innocent taxpaying citizens whose lives are severely endangered simply because of where they live? What is my standard of living if I’m dead?

While we laugh at loony lawsuits, let’s think about who is directing our attention to these pop tort stories and away from scrutinizing corporate “just us”-style justice and greed. Who wants us to think that our legal system is a shameful way to seek redress and to send a clear message to wrongdoers? Consumer advocacy groups that are dedicated to fighting for taxpayers? Civil rights groups? Environmental groups? No. It’s the folks who stand to lose profits if people wise-up to corporate misconduct and resist measures that would limit our ability to control and curb it through the court system.

There are bigger fish to fry than a few bad lawsuits: half-a-trillion-dollar, chemically polluted fish that you probably shouldn’t eat. And you fry them with a civil justice system that is of the people, by the people, and for the people, not “of the corporation, by the corporation, and for the corporation.”

Posted at 2:11 PM, Jul 19, 2007 in Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Comments

Marsha Kramer's CBS report which is refered to above has one glaring error in it- All of the cancer victims in the report live in Williamsburg on Devoe Street which is no where near the spill or Greenpoint. No one in the media seems to report the fact that more than half of the 17 million gallon spill has already been cleaned up. Also, the remediation process has been going on, with the blessing of local elected officials, since 1992 and continues. Also interesting is that no one points out that the spill is almost entirely under the remote western industrial section of Greenpoint near the East Williamsburg industrial park. There are a few residential streets near Kingsland Avenue that are above the spill, but the vast majority of residential properties are not involved with the spill.

The NY Post, in an article on Oct 15th by Angela Montefinise, and Senator Charles Schumer at a press conference on October 16 incorrectly reported that there was a potential cancer cluster in Greenpoint near an oil spill. However, three cases of an extremely rare sarcoma cancer are ACTUALLY on a single block IN WILLIAMSBURG (where Devoe Street is and nowhere near the oil spill, not even in the same zip code). One more case is five blocks away and even further away from Greenpoint and the oil spill. In fact, one victim got cancer after residing in the same apartment as an unrelated cancer victim and previous tenant. Sarcomas are a very rare form of cancer, and as reported in the Post article, "You don't see three in one block," Dr. Isaac Eliaz, a California expert on metal detoxification, said. "Someone should be paying attention to this." Dr. Kanti Rai, chief of oncology at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center, agreed that it was "worth an investigation." Unfortunately, the Senator is calling for a health study with regard to the oil spill and is ignoring a potentially very serious heath disaster in the Williamsburg community. Neighborhood Roots has reached out numerous times to Senator Schumer's Washington office's communications director Eric Schultz, and Bret Rumbeck who handles environmental issues for the Senator, with no calls being returned. Curiously, at the same press conference Congressman Anthony Weiner stated that Greenpoint has a 25% higher asthma rate than the rest of the city. The only problem is that the two health studies done by the state and city show the asthma rate in Greenpoint to be between 25% and 50% LOWER than the rest of the city along with a 10% LOWER cancer rate. Where are they higher? You guessed it- Williamsburg. The State DEC is aware of toxic industrial sites in Willliamsburg near Devoe Street that could potentially be the cause of these rare cancers, but no one is calling for that study.
"Instead, there seems to be a no holds barred attack on Greenpoint and a blatant disregard for the health concerns of the Willamsburg community", One has to wonder if Sen. Shumer and Congressman Weiner are in the pocket of Williamsburg real estate developers trying to cover up a serious health concern that may hinder the sales of their luxury condo developments. "Public officials are to serve and protect life and property- not serve and protect property of their cronies." One must question whether the recent support of massive residential development in Williamsburg and the historic resistance from Brooklyn politicians (including Borough President Marty Markowitz and Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez) to residential development along the recently rezoned Greenpoint waterfront has anything to do with this dissemination of lies.

Thanks much for your comment. Could you point us in the direction of some resources that elaborate on this information? We should always apply due scrutiny to the media's take on events--your comment is a good reminder of that.

The fact remains though that ExxonMobil has only recovered a small portion of oil spill, and that the rate of recovery is slowing. This is why the company must be compelled to do something and take responsibility for its actions. According to riverkeeper.org, ExxonMobil admitted back in 2003 that recovery wells in the largest section of the spill (containing about 14 million gallons) have recovered less than 4 million gallons of spilled product. This is shameful.

As for the Williamsburg illnesses and toxic contamination, this is a complete outrage. I'd love more information on this and about efforts to address this neglect of a serious public health matter. This is particularly scary if the situation is being mischaracterized to focus energy and attention onto one environmental disaster and away from another.

Thanks again for the comment.